Of Digimon and Partnerships
by DACSHeyes
Summary: 02AU: Instead of Tailmon gaining the power to Armour Evolve when she moved the Digimental of Light, Hikari gained another partner Digimon, a Gatomon. Now the three have to work out how their strange partnership works, while dealing the threat of the Digimon Kaiser.
1. Chapter 1

**Something I have been always fascinated by is the scene where Takeru and Hikari are in the cave with the Digimentals. While it turned out that all that happened was that their Digimon got the power to Armour Digivolve, the other things that might have happened are very interesting. So, finally, I have decided to write about what would happen if when she moved the egg, rather than Tailmon getting the power to become Nefertimon, Hikari gets a pink D-3 while keeping her original Digivice, and a Child-level Tailmon, though her Adult-level one will remain her partner as well.**

**Notes:**

**Tailmon still has her Holy Ring: The only reason the writers removed it was so that Tailmon had a reason to Armour Digivolve. With me giving Hikari a second partner, Tailmon isn't going to Armour Digivolve, and therefore gets to keep it.**

**Terminology: Because having two Digimon with the same name would get frustrating to work out whose who, or boring to read 'The Adult-level Tailmon' or 'The Child-level Tailmon' constantly, the Adult level one will keep Tailmon, while the Child-level one will use Gatomon.**

**Storyline: Will remain the same as the original 02, though I will fill in plotholes as best I can while I go without causing more.**

* * *

Takeru and Hikari stepped towards the Digimentals that bore their crests, encouraged by the insitance of their Digimon, when a glow began to shine in their pockets, pink in Hikari's and yellow in Takeru's.

"The Digivice is glowing!" Takeru exclaimed, raising his into the air. As he looked at it, it changed shape, becoming one of the Digivices that Daisuke, Miyako and Iori carried, but green. Next to him, the glow of Hikari's Digivice jumped from her Digivice to her open hand, leaving it unchanged, but formed a pink version of the new Digivice. Hikari blinked, shocked.

"Two Digivices…?" She murmured, but shook her head, and put both away, clasping her free hands around the Digimental of Light as Takeru did the same to the Digimental of Hope. The two lifted them easily.

"It's light…" Hikari breathed.

"We lifted them…" Said Takeru.

Where the Digimentals had sat, lights erupted. The yellow one beneath the Digimental of Hope wrapped around Patamon.

"Patamon, Armour Evolve! Soaring Hope, Pegasmon!"

However, inside the pink light beneath the Digimental of Light, a shadow formed, which developed into something that looked like Tailmon at first glance, though the second glance would unveil differences, like the lack of a Holy Ring on its tail, and its smaller stature. The white cat opened its eyes, say Hikari, and leapt at her.

_Gatomon! A curious Child-level Holy Beast Digimon!_

"Yay! I've finally been woken up! I'm Gatomon, are you my partner?" Gatomon cheered, her voice revealing her to be female.

Tailmon but her lip and looked away, but Hikari's words surprised her, as well as the other occupants of the cave.

"Yes." The brown haired girl said calmly. "But not my only one." She raised her voice. "Tailmon."

Tailmon looked back at her (former?) partner, and walked over to Hikari, who smiled at her.

"Gatomon, this is Tailmon, my first partner. Tailmon, Gatomon, my second."

Tailmon stared at Gatomon for a few moments, before extending a paw, which Gatomon stared at hesitantly, before shaking it.

"Hikari-chan," Takeru said slowly. "How do you know you have two partners?"

Hikari put down her Digimental and reached into her pockets and showed him both Digivices. "Two." She stated. "So Tailmon is still my partner, but so is Gatomon."

Iori cleared his throat. "We should worry about this later, Daisuke-san and Miyako-san need help."

Hikari nodded, and raised her Digimental. "Digimental Up!"

"Gatomon, Armour Evolve! Light of Smiles, Nefertimon!"

The second the evolution had finished, Hikari was hoisting herself onto Nefertimon's back, and Tailmon leapt up to sit on her back as well, and turned to look at the still-dumbstruck boys.

"Well?" She said. "Should we not get going?"

Snapping out of his stupor, Takeru nodded, and both he and Iori got on Pegasmon's back, and the two Armour Digimon left the cave, hurrying to aid their friends.

* * *

Daisuke and Miyako stood at the very edge of a cliff, Fladramon, Holsmon and Digmon having reverted back to their Child-level states and lay whimpering in pain before them, but the Kaiser and his five Tyranomon faced them still.

Atop ones shoulder, the Digimon Kaiser spoke. "Giving up already?"

"What!?" Daisuke snapped back.

"Look behind you." The Kaiser stated. "There's nowhere left to run."

Slowly, Daisuke did so, and grunted when he saw the drop, but just because there was nowhere to run to, did not mean this situation was going to end with the Kaiser's win.

"Daisuke-san!" Iori cried, and the two grounded Chosen Children looked into the sky to see Pegasmon and Nefertimon descend.

"What?" Miyako cried, surprised, for she had not been expecting to see two Armour Digimon.

The two Armour Digimon landed to let their passengers off, and their appearance shocked V-mon, Hawkmon and Armadimon into getting to their feet. The passengers getting off shocked Daisuke and Miyako again, for they could see Tailmon at Hikari's side, but also a much larger flying Digimon.

_Pegasmon! A Holy Beast Digimon who is strong against evil. His attack is a holy beam, Silver Blaze._

_Nefertimon! A Holy Beast Digimon who fights darkness with the power of light. Her attack, Curse of the Queen, fires red hot beams from her crown._

The Kaiser leapt down to the ground. "It's just a temporary evolution." He said. "You think you can use that against me all the time?" Then, he noticed Tailmon, and looked between her and Nefertimon. "Tw-two partner Digimon?"

"Fire Breath!" The Tyranomon snarled, and all five of them spat crimson flames from their mouth at the Armour Digimon. Nefertimon and Pegasmon took to the air to avoid them, while Tailmon dashed forwards, her eyes focused on the middle Tyranomon.

"Cat Punch!" She said, and leapt at it, punching its collar. The impact shattered it, and knocked the large red dinosaur to the ground. In the sky, the armour covering the forelegs of the two Armour Digimon began to glow.

"Sanctuary Bind!" The two yelled, and crossed each other in the sky, their glowing armour now connected by a strand of yellow light, which the wrapped around the four remaing slaves, trapping them in place.

"Needle Rain!" At Pegasmon's cry, his white mane hardened, and lots of little hairs flew at the bound Tyranomon.

"Nile Jewellery!" The pink diamonds on the front of Nefertimon's foreleg armour glowed pink, and from each came a small red rock that shot at her target.

Their attacks hit their prey in the collars, which broke apart after a few moments of attacking, and the Tyranomon crashed to the ground, their eyes back to their normal blue colour rather than the blood-red they had been under the servitude of the Kaiser.

With no more enemies in front of them, the two Armour Digimon landed, and shone with a yellpow light, reverted back to their Child-level, a pink light flowing from Gatomon into Hikari's D-Terminal and a yellow one from Patamon into Takeru's.

* * *

As the sun set, the five humans and the six Digimon waved goodbye to the freed Tyranomon, Hikari taking a picture using her camera. Once the dinosaurs had disappeared from their sight, they turned and walked back to the Digiport, and though they encountered no slaves of the Kaiser, their journey back was not uneventful, as they all had questions for Hikari.

"Two partner Digimon?" Miyako asked. "How cool!"

"I wonder why it's only Hikari-san though." Iori mused. "Why did Takeru-san not gain two partners, and why are our partners not second ones for other Chosen Children?"

"It might be because Tailmon is already at the Adult level," Takeru said thoughtfully. "While all the others are Child levels."

Daisuke shrugged. "Who cares why Hikari-chan has two Digimon?" He said. "She just does, simple as that."

"I agree with Daisuke-kun." Hikari said, making the boy blush. "I just do, and that's that."

The Digimon were likewise loaded with questions for the two Digimon who shared a human.

"Two Digimon for one human." Hawkmon said. "Are you sure you're both partnered to her?"

Though Gatomon looked unsure, Tailmon nodded. "Yes." The Adult level said. "My bond with Hikari is as strong as ever, and Gatomon can Armour Digivolve thanks to her. She carries two Digivices, one for me, and one for her."

"But," V-mon said. "Will you be able to share her? I waited forever for Daisuke, and I know I'd hate to have to share him with another Digimon."

Tailmon opened her mouth to answer, but Gatomon spoke first. "We'll manage." The smaller cat said. "After all, she's both out partner, so we both want to keep her, so we'll compromise for each other, right?"

Tailmon nodded "Right." She agreed, and then all further conversation ceased, for they were at the Digiport.

* * *

Back in the Human World, Gatomon had gone back to her Baby II level like the other new Digimon. Hers was a yellow cat head with red eyes and a purple striped tail. "I'm Nyaromon now!" She declared. "And I'm really hungry!"

Hikari giggled, lifting her up. "I imagine you are. Tailmon, could you-"

"Get her something to eat?" Tailmon said, already at the food bag Miyako had brought earlier. "Already on it." She quickly got something out of the bag, before Chibimon, Poromon and Upamon descended on it, tearing it apart to sate their hunger.

"It's good I brought so much." Miyako breathed in relief. "Otherwise, we wouldn't have enough."

As the other humans nodded in agreement, Tailmon leapt up to the table Hikari was sat against, opened the bottle she'd brought and held it up to Nyaromon's face.

"Have it slowly," Tailmon instructed. "It lasts longer, so you get more out of it that way." Nyaromon's head bobbed in acknowledgement as she drank, doing it much slower than the other Baby II Digimon. Takeru shot Tailmon a quizzical look, for she hadn't done that for the other Digimon.

"If she's Hikari's partner, then she's my partner too." Tailmon, guessing what the look was about, justified her actions. "So I'll look out for her, and teach her about the Human World properly."

With Tailmon looking after Nyaromon, Hikari swivelled in her chair, and plugged her camera into the computer, loading the picture of the Tyranomon, and as she did so, a thought occurred to her.

"I can't forgive that kid." She said. "Going after Patamon, when he couldn't fight back."

"Exactly!" Daisuke yelled next to her, smashing his hands together. "I'll beat him to a pulp!"

"Don't you agree, Takeru-kun?" Hikari asked, oblivious to Daisuke's sudden loss of enthusiasm and expression change at her words.

"Of course!" The blonde boy said. "I can't believe he's a human like us." He paused briefly. "And he thinks the Digital World belongs to him... he's crazy."

"By the way," Iori said from next to the food bag. "Our Digimentals seem to be different."

"Huh?" Daisuke asked, not understanding, as seemed to do the same thing, letting Digimon Armour Evolve. "What do you mean?"

"Daisuke-san, Miyako-san and I, we all met our Digimon through the Digimentals, but it was different for Takeru-san and Hikari-san." Iori clarified. "Patamon gained the ability to Armour Evolve, while Hikari-san got a second partner."

"Yeah…" Takeru agreed. "I didn't expect it"

"But I'm really happy." Hikari smiled. "Two partners, I bet that even shocked the Kaiser."

"I can't stand that guy." Miyako scowled.

"I wonder who he is…" Iori thought aloud.

"Whoever he is," Daisuke said. "What he's doing is unforgivable!" His words generated a sign of agreement from everyone, except Iori.

'_But I can't bring myself to hurt people…' _He thought.

"Hey, this is kind of like an adventure game!" Miyako giggled.

"Hey," Daisuke responded, "I thought you were afraid!"

The purple haired girl bent down to smile at the three Baby II Digimon on the ground. "Who cares?" She asked.

* * *

Once outside her apartment building, Hikari passed the sleeping Nyaromon to Tailmon. "Hurry into my room." She said. "Mum'll freak if she sees either of you." Tailmon nodded, and Hikari opened the door. "I'm home!"

"Have fun with your friends?" Yuuko asked, cooking something in the kitchen area, allowing Tailmon to sneak past that unnoticed, and since her dad was watching TV, Tailmon got to Hikari's room door unnoticed by the adults. Taichi did notice the two Digimon, and looked at Hikari with his question very visible on his face.

"Yes." Hikari answered, walking to her room and opening her door. "Call me when tea's ready, I have homework to do. Can you help me with it, Big Brother?"

"Sure." Taichi said, getting up from watching TV and walking into her room. Once sure their parents weren't listening in, he turned to his sister. "What's with the cat face, Hikari?"

Hikari related the events of today's venture in the Digital World, and once she was done, Taichi was scratching the back of his head.

"Two partner Digimon?" He said. "I'm jealous." He paused, then grinned at her. "But it means I won't have to worry about you as much, with two Digimon watching over you." At his words, Hikari laughed, her worries gone. "I've got nothing planned for tomorrow, so I'll join you guys in freeing some Digimon, so I'll see your new partner in action then."

"Good." Tailmon said. "Remember to sneak plenty of food back here Hikari, you need to feed both of us now.

Blushing, Hikari nodded, and got out her books from her back, needing to at least do some homework so her excuse to stay in her room wouldn't fall apart.

* * *

In a dark room, a boy with emotionless eyes scowled. The girl in pink had two partners now. He had to prevent the others from getting more too, and the amount of Digimon who could fight his slaves effectively had grown to six, meaning he would have to bring even more when he combated them. His scowl switched to a smirk. The game had got even more interesting than it had been before.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, when Hikari's alarm went off, Nyaromon snapped awake and began to bounce around, looking for an attacking Digimon. "We're under attack!" She cried. "Tailmon, we need to protect Hikari!"

Tailmon reacted quickly, and quieted the Baby Digimon by slapping her paw over her mouth. "It's just Hikari's alarm." She explained as Hikari got out of bed. "Humans use them to make sure that they wake up on time."

"Oh!" Nyaromon whispered, "Wake up on time for what?"

"Lots of things." Hikari said. "For me though, I have to get ready for school. Stay here, I'll be back with breakfast."

Tailmon nodded, and Hikari left the room. Nyaromon wobbled around for a while, then asked. "What's school?"

"It's the place we were in yesterday after leaving the Digital World. Hikari goes there nearly every day to learn about things that will help her later in life." Tailmon told Nyaromon, and any more questions were aborted by Hikari rushing in with food.

"Right." The human said as she began to divide up the food into equal parts. "Here's Tailmon's portion, and here's your portion, Nyaromon." Hikari pointed at one bowl, then another, and moved over her wardrobe to get changed. "Eat up!"

Tailmon and Nyaromon moved over to their respective food, and Tailmon turned to Nyaromon. "Do you remember what I said about eating yesterday?" Tailmon asked.

Nyaromon nodded. "Eat slowly, it lasts longer than way."

"It also leaves less of a mess." Hikari called as she changed.

For a while there was silence, as the two Digimon ate their food. When Hikari was finished getting dressed, she got her bowl and ate with them, though having started earlier, the Digimon finished first. Once she had finished eating, Hikari gathered up the three bowls and left the room, but came back very quickly without the bowls, but wearing her red backpack. She bent down and picked Nyaromon up and left again, Tailmon following her.

"I'm going to school now!" Hikari called to her mother. "Bye!"

Her goodbye said, she hurried out, and rushed for the lift. Luckily for the trio, no one was in it, so they had time to teach Nyaromon about how she needed to act to avoid suspicion in the Human World.

"Nyaromon." Hikari said, making the yellow Digimon look up at her. "If you see a human, I need you to go as still as possible and make no noise unless I tell you it's okay."

Nyaromon nodded her understanding. "But why?" She asked, confused.

"Humans get afraid of things they don't understand," Tailmon said seriously. "And cat faces that can talk and move are certainly something they'd be afraid of, and they try to dispose of anything they don't understand."

The newer partner looked at the older one. "Do you have to do it too?"

"No, but only because I look enough like a regular cat," Tailmon laughed. "All the other partner Digimon have to put on disguises or pose as stuffed animals too, so it's not just you."

Nyaromon still looked down, upset by what she'd been told, so Hikari tried to cheer her up. "Don't worry, once you get strong enough to stay at the Child level here too, you'll won't have to pose as a stuffed animal either," She said. "Please don't be sad."

Her words did cheer Nyaromon up, and soon she was bobbing around happily, but she still had one more question. "So, what do we do while Hikari's in class?"

Tailmon grinned. "We spy on her, to make sure she stays safe even when we can't stay close to her." Her grin was infectious, and Nyaromon broke out into a large grin too. Hikari made a brief attempt to look scandalized by Tailmon's admission, but couldn't manage it, and wound up grinning too.

* * *

The journey from the apartment building to school was mostly uneventful, but once there Hikari had something to say to her two Digimon, and she put Nyaromon down before rummaging in her bag. "Keep out of trouble, you two." She said, and passed Tailmon a red box. "Dinner's in there, and we're meeting in the Computer Room at the same time as yesterday." She stood up, deliberated for a bit, but in the end rushed inside the building to get ready for class. Tailmon sighed, and picked up Nyaromon and the red box.

"Come on." The adult level said "I'll take you to the tree outside Hikari's class, best spot for spying on her."

Tailmon's word was good, and the duo made themselves comfortable in the high branches of the tree that overlooked Hikari's class room, watching their partner as she worked. Every so often, Hikari would look out of the window and flash a smile. After a long period of silence, Tailmon coughed.

"Would you like to hear the story of how I met Hikari?" She ventured, and the younger Digimon bobbed her head. "Well then, it happened three years ago…"

* * *

After that, life for the trio settled into a routine, though one distinctly different from most. Wake up, go to school, save the Digital World, go home, and on those trips they'd learned how the Kaiser had Evil Towers erected, and those were what kept the partners from evolving to Adult, as well as keep the Evil Rings active, but it was the people they'd met on the trips that had concerned them. The other Chosen Children and their Digimon partners had all expressed curiosity into Hikari having two partners, but all of the Digimon partners had also expressed the idea that they were thankful not to have to share their partner, and after a day of destroying Dark Towers, the thought weighed heavily on Nyaromon's mind as the trio lay in bed.

_'I'm the interloper here.' _She thought sadly. _'These two were partners long before I came along, is it right for me to interfere with that?' _She was shaken from her thoughts by Hikari's arms wrapping round her and picking her up, the human sitting up as she did so.

"I know what's bothering you," Hikari said. "And please, stop thinking it." Her words shocked Nyaromon from her thoughts. "We've managed so far, and we'll just keep managing until our three way partnership become natural, okay?" He words, though optimistic, did little to soothe Nyaromon's thoughts, and while she hid it well, Hikari's mind was plagued with dark thoughts of her own.

_'I'm not good at this' _The brown-haired girl thought miserably._ 'Surely anyone else would be better? Nyaromon should have a partner who can just focus on her, but I have Tailmon to consider too.'_

Tailmon's thoughts were no better. _'Are me and Hikari partners anymore? She might have two Digivices, but I don't need her to get to my Adult stage, and with us unable to reach Perfect, we don't need each other like the others do, while Nyaromon does need Hikari to evolve.' _She sighed_. 'Perhaps it'd be for the best if I just left, that way their partnership can blossom, as it probably should.'_

Sleep did not come easily to the three, and even then, they had no rest, for their thoughts had invited darker dreams than the norm.

Tailmon dreamt of Vamdemon. She dreamt of the endless cruelty of the vampire, and of her fate with him if not for Wizarmon and Hikari. Evil herself, twisted beyond recognition, helping him to bring about the end of the human world, and eventually supplanting him, and she dreamt of her fate if he had won, of everyone else dead and herself broken into nothing more than a trophy of his superiority over the few who could have challenged him.

Dismay filled Nyaromon's dreams, from Hikari snubbing her when they first met, to the other Chosen Children and their Digimon rejecting her too. Even the Digimon Kaiser's slaves refused her offer to free them, and her dreams drifted further back, till she dreamt of shadowy figures denying the mere idea of putting her underneath the Digimental of Light.

Hikari's dreams were of an endless grey beach and black seas. Nothing moved on the beach, but she could sense something deep down beneath the waves. Something ancient and malicious and WRONG, whose hatred for everything was as vast and timeless as the sea it slept under, and nothing, not a human, not an animal and not a Digimon would ever change that hate. And that hatred clung to her, wrapping itself around her body like the tentacles of an octopus, drowning out all other sensations until all Hikari could feel was that endless hate.

Their dreams only abated when dawn shone through Hikari's curtains, but the dreams had taken their toll on the three, and they awoke feeling heavy, and could not bring themselves to speak to each other.

* * *

"Are you all right, Hikari-chan?" Takeru asked later, as they prepared to enter the Digital World. He asks because though her restless sleep has left her skin sallow and her eyes sunken. Her Digimon aren't much better, with their fur matted and their eyes drooping.

"Yeah, you don't look so good." Miyako noted. "Perhaps you should sit out this trip."

"I'm fine, Takeru-kun, Miyako-san." Hikari waved off their concern. "Shall we go?"

Takeru opens his mouth to speak again, but Daisuke speaks first. "If Hikari-chan says she's okay, then she's okay." He raises his Digivice. "Everyone ready?"

They all nod, raising their Digivices too, and Miyako says the usual cheer. "Digital Gate, open! Chosen Children, let's roll!"

* * *

Hikari, Gatomon and Tailmon feel better in the Digital World, and look it too, alleviating Takeru's concern, but their mission does not go as planned. They trip an alarm almost immediately after arriving, but they don't consider the ramifications of that until later, but by then it was too late.

"Intrusion! Intrusion!" A Guardromon says, raising its arms and firing missiles at the group.

_Guardromon! An Adult level Digimon with an extremely high defence. His Special Attack is Destruction Grenade!_

The Digimon are easily able to dodge the missiles, and attack back, hoping the freed slaves would help them free the area as they did in other ones.

"Gold Rush!"

"Shooting Star!"

"Knuckle Fire!"

Fladramon, Digmon and Pegasmon's attacks break many Evil Rings, but once freed, the Guardromon just stand in place, and the enslaved ones just march around them.

Daisuke gritted his teeth. "What's with these guys?"

"They just keep coming and coming…" Miyako cried. "Do they ever stop?"

"They'll just keep wearing us down like this." Iori said. "We should go back."

"I agree." Miyako spoke up again. "We're outnumbered, we should retreat!"

"Retreat?" Daisuke asked. "Why are you being so weak, the Dark Tower is right there!"

As if on cue, to undermine his stance, both Fladramon and Digmon shrank back down to V-mon and Armadimon, and they began to flee the battle.

"Daisuke-kun!" Takeru called, already getting ready to fall back. "We should go back and come up with a plan with Koushiro-san!"

"Tentomon may have new information for us." Hikari agreed, and raised her voice. "Tailmon, we're falling back!"

There was no response at first, then two Guardromon who had nearly caught up with V-mon and Armadimon suddenly stop moving, their Evil Rings broken, and she sees Tailmon nod at her.

"There's no choice," Daisuke notes, aggravated. "Retreat." With everyone finally of the same mind, they turn and head back to the TV screen, Holsmon and Pegasmon in front, to deal with any Guardromon that have snuck up on them, and Nefertimon and Tailmon at the back, to cover their retreat.

They run into no resistance on the way, so the remaining three Armour Digimon revert back to their Child levels as they approach the TV. Hikari sees Takeru go in through the portal, but it blows up before she can even raise her D-3. They look up and see a Guardromon on the roof of a building.

"Cat Punch!" Tailmon cried as she leapt into the air, and it hits with more force than she meant to use. Not only does the Guardromon's Evil Ring break, but the Digimon itself goes flying through the air. "Sorry," Tailmon apologizes as she lands next to Hikari and Gatomon. "I lost my temper."

"We can't stay here with the alarm blaring; more Guardromon will be here in moments." Gatomon said. "We need to leave."

Hikari nods, and the three sprint down alleyways until the alarm is much more faint. With her Digimon standing watch, the brown haired girl got out her D-Terminal and sends a message to the others, letting them know she's okay. "And sent..."

"I can still Armour Evolve to fight." Gatomon said, "I'm not as tired as V-mon and Armadimon were."

"Okay! Thanks, Gatomon. What about you, Tailmon?" Hikari asks.

"I'm fine too."

"Great!" For a moment, Hikari's face widened into a smile, but then it fell down again. "Now what do we do?"

"Perhaps we should see if there's another TV in the area?" Gatomon ventured, but Tailmon shook her head.

"No, there's only been one per area so far." The larger cat said. "Our best bet is to get out of this area and use the TV of another one."

"But how?" Hikari asks. "We came in through the TV."

Tailmon shrugs. "No idea. We'd get a better view of this place from the sky, but Nefertimon would be shot down by all the Guardromon in the area."

Gatomon bristled at the comment, but didn't challenge it, knowing she was right.

"Doesn't mean we can't look from higher up though…" Hikari mused, looking up at the walls for moment, before looking down at the Digimon. "Could you two bust through a wall?" She asked.

The two look at each other for a moment, then nod. "Together, yes." Gatomon said. "I'd need to be Nefertimon though."

"Then do it. Once we're inside, we can go upstairs to get a better look at the area, without being in danger." Hikari instructed. "Digimental Up!"

"Gatomon Armour Evolve! Light of Smiles, Nefertimon!"

"Curse of Queen!" The pink beams erupt from the Armour Digimon's crown and begin to burn away at the metal. Once she deemed it damaged enough, Tailmon geustered for the sphinx to stop, then ran at the wall.

"Cat Punch!" The already damaged metal gave way easily at Tailmon's attack, and gives them access to the inside of a building. With the way clear, the three of them rushed inside, and ran up the stairs. Once they gotten to a high up window, they gazed out of it, and took in the surrounding area.

"Our best bet is to try and get out of the city," Tailmon said, "The Guardromon probably moved back to defend the Tower when we disappeared." A cursory look would suggest she was right, with only small pockets of the robots milling about, and not the endless army they'd fought earlier.

"But," she continued. "The walls of the dome are made from a much more durable material than the walls of the buildings, so we'd have to leave through the actual door, and we don't know where that is, and the second we leave the building, the Guardromon will descend on us again."

Nefertimon stared incredulously at the other Digimon. "So, we don't know where our only exit is, and we'll get blown up the second we try to search for it?"

As Tailmon nodded, Hikari thought pensively on how they could get out of the situation. An idea came quickly to her, though she knew neither of her partners were going to like it.

"Right, here's what we'll do. Tailmon, you and Nefertimon head to the side of the dome, to try and find an exit." She said. "The others wouldn't just leave us here, so you'll be able to meet them at another portal to explain the situation."

"And what'll you be doing?" Nefertimon asked.

"I'll distract the Guardromon, keeping their attention on me, and not you two."

"What!?" Tailmon gasped. "No, I won't let that happen. Instead, you and Nefertimon do what you said, and I'll distract the Guardromon by fighting them."

"Or," Nefertimon said. "I'll distract the Guardromon, and you two escape." As the other two opened their mouths to object she shook her head. "No, you two were already partners before I came along, and Tailmon is the stronger than I am, so I make the most sense to go and distract the Guardromon."

"You two should have the opportunity to let your partnership develop!" Tailmon objected. "I'm naturally an Adult, and with my ability to Super Evolve gone, you need Hikari more than I do, and given my past…" She hesitated. "I have a much better chance of surviving the Guardromon than you do."

Nefertimon opened her mouth to argue when Hikari started to laugh. Her two Digimon looked at her, surprised. "Look at us." She said. "Trying sacrifice ourselves so the others can go. We might all have our misgivings about our partnership, but doesn't this prove that we are all partners?" She smiled warmly at her Digimon. "Let's all go and try to escape together."

Nefertimon and Tailmon looked at each other hesitantly. Both had envisioned leaving their partner so the other Digimon could have a better relationship, but now that the time had come, neither of them could find it within themselves to actually insist upon it.

Tailmon smiled. "Okay, Hikari, let's all go."

"Just get on my back first," Nefertimon said. "I can fly faster than you can run." Hikari nodded, and climbed on. Nefertimon got ready to break the window when a thought occurred to her. "Which way?"

Hikari blinked, and got out her first Digivice, studying the radar. "Takeru-kun and Daisuke-kun are coming from behind us." She said. "Head towards them, hopefully they'll be going towards the entrance of this area."

Nefertimon nodded. "Are you coming getting on, Tailmon?" She asked.

"I'll be following you on the ground, to deal with any Guardromon that attack." Tailmon said, and pre-emptively dealt with Hikari's concerns. "Don't worry Hikari, it's not an attempt to sacrifice myself, I'll keep up."

"If you're sure." The human girl said. "Let's go, Nefertimon."

"Rosetta Stone!" In lieu of responding, the Armour Digimon shattered the window, allowing the two Holy Beast Digimon to leap out of the building, Nefertimon taking to the sky and Tailmon landing on the ground.

"Intrusion! Intrusion!" As soon as they were visible, the Guardromon began their wailing alarm again, and raised their arms to fire at Nefertimon, but Tailmon got to them first.

"Cat Punch!" She gave no pause after shattering their rings, running as fast as she could to get ahead of her partners, so she could keep them safe.

For a short while, this worked well. Tailmon's speed enabled her to reach most of the Guardromon as soon as they got ready to attack, so she could shut them down before they could do anything. And while she could not get them all, Nefertimon used her Nile Jewellery to shoot down any attacks that the ones Tailmon missed could make. But as the distance between them and Takeru and Daisuke shortened, two Guardromon appeared behind them and fired their Destruction Grenades at Nefertimon.

Tailmon's ears caught it, and she yelled a warning. "Behind you!"

Nefertimon heard it too, but since they were coming from behind her, she had no way to destroy them, and turning around to do so might mean that they would hit. So she darted about, in an attempt to dodge the attacks, and she so very nearly succeeded: three of the missiles hit the walls of the buildings. But she misjudged the trajectory of one, and it hit Nefertimon in her left wing, sending both her and Hikari tumbling to the ground below.

Their landing was harsh, and as the two lay crumpled on the ground, the Digimental of Light returned to Hikari's D-Terminal, returning Nefertimon to Gatomon. The two slowly got up, and looked behind them to see the two Guardromon marching towards them, arms ready to fire another volley. Tailmon appeared between them, ready to do battle with them to keep her partners safe.

"Heaven's Knuckle!"

"Knuckle Fire!"

A beam of golden light came from behind them, freeing one while Fladramon bounded forwards and punched the other's Evil Ring. Surprised, the three turned around to see Angemon, Takeru and Daisuke running towards them.

"Daisuke-kun! Takeru-kun! Thank you!" Hikari shouted to her friends. She could see the three grin, and Daisuke and Takeru talk to each other, but could not make out what they said. Just as they reached her, Angemon shot away again and hurled his staff between some buildings, probably to free another Guardromon.

Daisuke smiled at her. "Come on, Hikari-chan! Hurry up!" She nodded back, and they turned around to finally leave the area, but a figure stood in their way, and their surprise at seeing someone there stopped them in their tracks. The person was made out of metal, with one leg made out of withered flesh. Hikari and Tailmon recognised him instantly.

"This guy's different…" Daisuke said, but Hikari rushed forwards, beaming.

"Andromon!"

_Andromon! A Perfect level prototype Cyborg Digimon! He uses his arms for his special attack, Spiral Sword!_

Almost immediately after speaking, Hikari frowned, noticing the Evil Ring around her friend's neck. "Andromon…" She said again, but much less cheerful than her previous exclamation.

"Kaiser-sama's command: destroy the Chosen Children." Andromon rumbled, his blood red eyes fixed on them.

Hikari took another step forwards. "Stop, Andromon! Don't you recognise us?"

Daisuke looked at her. "What are you talking about, Hikari-chan?" He turned to look at the Digimon behind him. "Fladramon, bust through him!"

"Leave it to me." His Digimon nodded, and then leapt into the air. "Fire Rocket!" Coated in an aura of fire, the Armour Digimon sped towards Andromon, who had other ideas.

"Spiral Sword!" A blade of light left his spinning right arm and shot towards Fladramon. The blade dispersed the flames easily, and collided with Fladramon, stopping his momentum and instantly reverting him to V-mon. Hikari's mouth opened wide in shock, and Daisuke rushed forwards as the Digimental of Courage returned to his D-Terminal.

"V-mon!" He shouted, and knelt down to help his wounded partner up. "Hey, hang in there!"

"It's the first time I've seen such a strong attack…" V-mon gasped out.

Nearby, Takeru jumped out of Angemon's arms as his own partner went to face Andromon. "Daisuke-kun!" He yelled in concern.

"Heaven's Knuckle!" A beam of golden light left the angel Digimon's fist, but all Andromon did was raise his right arm, and the light impacted harmlessly with the metal coating it.

"Spiral Sword!" Andromon unleashed another blade of energy, aiming at Angemon. The adult level Digimon darted to the side, allowing the blade to pass by him, but did not expect it to turn around in mid-air and slam into his back. Angemon fell from the sky and crashed down next to Takeru and Daisuke.

"He's a Perfect level, he's too strong…" He groaned as Takeru helped him up.

Next to the blonde, Daisuke gasped. "Perfect level? What's that?" He asked, but no answer was forthcoming.

Next to Hikari and Gatomon, Tailmon's eyes narrowed. "My turn." She said before rushing forwards. Andromon's attention turned to her, and his hand began to spin once more.

"Spiral Sword!" A third blade of energy came forth, and shot towards the charging Holy Beast Digimon. Tailmon moved to the side, so the blade passed by her as it had Angemon, but she did not stop her charge towards the Perfect level. As she got closer to the Cyborg, the blade got closer to her, but Tailmon knew that she'd do what she planned before it hit.

She reached Andromon, but did not jump up to destroy his Evil Ring, and instead leapt between his legs. Reacting quickly, Andromon brought his arms up to block his own attack, but the impact staggered him backwards. Seizing the opportunity, Tailmon jumped upwards to destroy the Evil Ring, but Andromon recovered quicker than she imagined, and he grabbed her, swivelled around and hurled her into Angemon, knocking him over again.

With no one else left able to try to destroy the Evil Ring, Hikari took another step forwards. "Andromon, have you forgotten that you fought on our side?" She pleaded.

"Hikari-chan, we don't even know if it's the same Andromon from that time!" Takeru pointed out, but Hikari knew that it was, even if she didn't know how she knew.

"I know he is."

"Even if he is, he's being controlled by that Ring!" As he spoke, Andromon began marching towards them. "Your voice won't reach him!"

Hikari's eyes narrowed. "That's not true!"

Daisuke pushed between them. "What are you doing?" He yelled. "We have to run!"

Andromon's attention moved to Daisuke, and stopped moving. Wanting to seize the opportunity, Angemon, Tailmon, V-mon and Gatomon charged at him, but the Perfect level was knocked to the ground by a beam of red light coming from the sky. The four Digimon turned to look at where it came from, and saw Holsmon.

"Wings of Love, Holsmon!" The griffon declared.

Next to them, the ground cracked and Digmon rose up. "Full stomach and full of energy, Digmon-sama, dagyaa!" His attention moved to the rising Andromon. "Here goes… Gold Rush!"

The drills bounced harmlessly off of Andromon and returned to Digimon, who recoiled, shocked. "No effect at all!"

"Hikari! Are you okay!" Taichi shouted from behind the group, who turned around to see him and Iori running towards them.

"Big Brother! It's Andromon!" She said in response.

Taichi charged past her and shouted at the Cyborg Digimon. "Andromon, it's me!" He said, trusting Hikari that it was the same Andromon from their last adventure. "Taichi!"

"Taichi…" Andromon murmured, staring at him for several seconds. Then, his Evil Ring began to spark with electricity, and he roared, before swinging his arms and moving forwards. Taichi ran out of the way, but Hikari stood her ground and stared at the approaching Digimon. When he stopped, they stared at each other for a few seconds, before Andromon grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted her up.

"Hikari!" Everyone shouted, but Gatomon waved her arms.

"Wait!" She pleaded. She may not have known her partner for very long, but if she hadn't moved out of the way, Gatomon trusted that she knew what she was doing.

"Andromon…" The brown haired girl said quietly.

"Hikari…" Andromon murmured back.

"Remember the picture we took together?" She asked, her eyes filling with tears, on of which fell and splashed on Andromon's helmet.

"Picture…" He repeated.

As he spoke, her new Digivice fell from her pocket, and bounced off Andromon's cheek, creating a warm pink light as it did so. When it reached the ground beneath the Cyborg Digimon's feet, the light had grown exponentially, so to the onlookers, they were surrounded in a cone of the light.

"Yes… everyone…" Andromon said. "We took a commemorative photo…" The blood red light faded from his eyes as Hikari's new Digivice stopped glowing, and he lowered her to the ground.

"I have… been controlled by this?" He asked, and ripped his Evil Ring to pieces.

"Andromon!" Hikari cried happily.

He nodded, and turned to look at the Dark Tower. "Dark Tower… how dare you…" His chest plated opened up. "Gatling Missile!" Two missiles left his chest cavity, and blew up the Dark Tower, disabling all of the Evil Rings that were in the area.

* * *

As Andromon led the party to the exit, Hikari noticed that the Guardromon still weren't moving. "Hey… will the Guardromon be broken forever?" She asked. "Can they get back to normal?"

"They will be fine." Andromon reassured her. "If we change the program that was modified by the Evil Rings, they will revert back to normal." He paused next to one of the machines, broke the Evil Ring with his fist, and extended cables from his arm into it. "And then… we will protect this city so the Kaiser will never have his way again." As he spoke, beeps came from the Guardromon, and when Andromon retracted the cables, it moved by itself. Seeing that, the Chosen Children and their Digimon gave a sigh of relief.

* * *

With the day getting later still, the six Children said their goodbyes to Andromon, and used the gate in the desert to get back to their world, and someone was waiting for them on the other side.

"Izumi-senpai!" Miyako gasped. "Why are you here?"

Koushiro put his finger to his lip. "Shh! Be quiet."

He said nothing more until all of them had left the school, and only then did he decide to speak again. "Yamato-san told me what happened. I checked the gate sensor on my computer and found that the gate was still open. If a teacher had found out and turned off the power, what would you have done?" His words made Daisuke, Miyako, Iori and Takeru turn their heads away and chuckle nervously, obviously none of them had thought about that.

"Hey, let's keep it at that…" Taichi said, "You just wanted to come too, didn't you?"

Koushiro whirled around. "Taichi-san!" He snapped, making the elder boy recoil, but before he went any further he remembered something. "Right... I just got an email from my friend in America…" He got blank looks from everyone else. "I asked him for some analysis and Miyako-kun and the others Digivices and he sent me the results."

What he said didn't seem to register properly with anyone. "A friend in America?" Taichi asked.

Koushiro smiled. "He helped me in the past"

The words jogged Taichi's memory. "Ah, I remember."

"So, about Miyako-kun and the rest's new Digivices…" the red haired boy continued, as all five of them got theirs out. "Digital. Detect. Discover. Names with those meanings were stored as information. Since they all begin with 'D' we'll call them 'D-3' from now on. There are other interesting things I learned, for example…" He was cut off by everyone's stomach rumbling.

"I'm hungry, Daisuke!" Chibimon cried.

Daisuke grinned sheepishly. "M-me too…"

"Koushiro, you'll tell us tomorrow." Taichi said. "We should go home now or we'll be in trouble. We're really late for dinner!"

* * *

After they'd eaten, and were all in bed and ready to fall asleep, Nyaromon remembered something that Tailmon had said. "Hey, Tailmon," She asked. "What did you mean when you said you couldn't Super Evolve anymore?"

Tailmon blinked; surprised at the question, but it was Hikari who answered. "We gave the power to do so up, in order to help the Digital World."

"But does that mean Tailmon can't evolve at all anymore?" Nyaromon persisted.

"I can still evolve; we just don't have the power to get me to the Perfect level." Tailmon elaborated, but Nyaromon's questions had put a thoughtful look on Hikari's face. "Hikari?"

"Everyone else is naturally at the Child level." The human girl said slowly. "But you're naturally an Adult level…"

Tailmon blinked again. "So?"

"Then, shouldn't you need less power to reach the Perfect level?" Hikari asked.

"Yes, but…" Tailmon trailed off, thoughtful too. They had just accepted that they were unable to Super Evolve after giving up the power they had used previously, but that did not mean that they were unable to get to it by other means. Tailmon needed no boost to reach the Adult level like the others did, so that power was available to them, and if she worked to try and reach the Perfect level naturally, then the power needed for Hikari to evolve her would decrease, and they might be able to get her to Angewomon, even without the Crest of Light.

The two smiled at Nyaromon. "You've given us a great idea, Nyaromon." Hikari said. "Thank you."

Nyaromon shifted, then yawned. "Tired." She murmured sleepily. "Story?"

Tailmon nodded, and began to tell the younger Digimon a story of a previous adventure she'd had with Hikari. She spoke of evil teddy bears and enslaved Numemon, of Hikari's light and Mugendramon's death. By the time she was finished, both Nyaromon and Hikari were sound asleep. Tailmon smiled, then curled up to do the same.

Unlike the night before, sleep came easily to the three, and their dreams were calm and their sleep was very restful.

* * *

**Notes: Yeah, Angemon reverting back into Patamon when he entered an area with a Dark Tower in never made sense to me, since Greymon and the others didn't revert when they did it. So I just had him stay as Angemon.**


End file.
